UNT loses despite McCollum’s absence

The highly anticipated showdown between
a pair of potential NBA lottery picks in North Texas forward Tony Mitchell and
Lehigh guard C.J. McCollum never materialized Thursday.

Lehigh was expected to roll out the
nation’s leading scorer and the hero of its win over Duke in last season’s NCAA
tournament in front of 59 NBA team executives and a crowd of 4,955 at the Super
Pit.

McCollum was nowhere to be found when
tip time came.

That made the way Lehigh rolled to a
90-75 win even tougher for the Mean Green to take.

Lehigh held McCollum out because of a
sprained ankle he suffered in practice this week — a decision the coaching
staff didn’t make until game time, leaving the Mountain Hawks shorthanded.

Lehigh (9-2) rolled anyway on a night
the Mean Green (5-7) saw another chance to earn a signature win, not to mention
one that could turn its season around, slip through its hands.

“It’s definitely hard,” UNT guard Alzee
Williams said. “We were all pumped up about this game. We thought we were going
to win.”

UNT had all the more reason to believe
that would be the case with McCollum out. The 6-3 senior guard came into the
week leading the nation in scoring with an average of 24.9 points a game.

McCollum was a big reason Lehigh came
into the night having scored at least 80 points in four of its last five games.

The Mountain Hawks made it five of six
behind Gabe Knutson, who scored a game-high 28 points.

Knutson hit all but one of the five
3-pointers he attempted against UNT, which struggled to contain Lehigh on the
perimeter.

The Mountain Hawks hit 11 of their 23
attempts from beyond the arc and had four players hit at least two 3s. Mackey
McKnight hit two 3s and finished with 25 points, while Holden Greiner added 15
points.

“They have really good players and are
so efficient,” UNT coach Tony Benford said. “They share the ball. When you have
a team that is shooting like that, if you can’t contain the ball, they get you
rotating and it is tough to get to them.”

UNT didn’t get there often enough and
struggled to keep pace.

Mitchell didn’t start because of what
Benford described as a minor violation of team rules. He came off the bench to
score 22 points and lead three UNT players who finished in double figures.

Early on it appeared that UNT had a
chance to pull off the minor upset.

UNT led 21-18 in the first half before
the game turned on a foul call on Justin Patton. The UNT forward took the ball
to the basket. One official called a charge while another called a foul.

After conferring, the foul was called on
Patton.

Lehigh immediately went on a 7-0 run.
Knutson hit a layup and then a 3-pointer to spark the surge.

It was all downhill from there for UNT,
which struggled defensively in the first half as Lehigh hit eight 3-pointers.
The last of those came when McKnight hit a 3 on a heave from just beyond the
opposite 3-point line at the buzzer to give Lehigh a 52-33 halftime lead.

UNT worked on defending the 3-point arc
all week but still struggled to keep up with Lehigh.

“We are not as quick on the perimeter,”
Benford said. “When we lost Brandan Walton, that really hurt us.”

Walton, an injured senior guard, was one
of UNT’s better on-ball defenders and has the speed and quickness to keep up
with smaller guards.

UNT spent the night chasing and often
not catching Lehigh’s shooters, who ended up stealing the show on a night that
was expected to feature McCollum and Mitchell.

“We were surprised he didn’t play,”
Mitchell said. “It wasn’t about C.J. We didn’t execute on offense or defense.
You can’t do that and win.”

That’s especially true in a game against
one of the nation’s best mid-major programs.

“When we scheduled this game, we knew
that they are a great ballclub, an NCAA tournament team, well-coached with
really good players,” Benford said. “It’s not just C.J. McCollum. They proved
that tonight.”

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